The Outsiders

Being a fashion insider (and your own boss) is a funny thing… On any given day, I can wear whatever crazy thing I want – from clashing in blinding colors to layering until I look like a street urchin – and no one will pull me aside for a “talk” or refer me to rules about office dress code. In fact, I’ll probably get compliments from my coworkers.

So today, I decided to wear buffalo plaid shorts over leggings. I didn’t feel like shaving my legs (are we all sensing a theme here?) and I thought why not.

Someone who loves fashion would look at a picture of me in this outfit and think any number of thoughts. Maybe “that look is so over” or “her thighs are too big for that” or, you know, whatever judgmental thing pops into a fashion person’s head. And that’s fine (sort of), because that’s what we insiders do.

But what’s really funny about being inside the house of fashion is what’s lurking outside the door: the normal people or “norms” (to borrow a term from the indie scene lexicon). We can pretend all we want, but fashion norms make up the majority of the population, especially in the States. And any fashion norm would look at a picture of me in this outfit and think only one thing

Is she wearing pants over her pants?

Face it, fellow fashion lovers, a lot of what we consider normal or trendy is totally insane. I might as well be a greaser named Ponyboy.

For more of my outfits, most of which don’t look anything like this one, check out my Style Diary.